Football
The bargains of Inter and Roma
The Nerazzurri beat Lecce 2-0 and José Mourinho’s men beat Juventus 1-0 on Sunday. It is AC Milan who pays the price in Serie A.
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Inter Milan midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored a superb goal against Lecce on Sunday.
AFP
AC Milan’s setback on Saturday was immediately taken advantage of by its rivals on Sunday: Inter Milan alone took second place in Serie A by beating Lecce (2-0) and AS Roma chased the Rossoneri of the top 4 by beating Juventus (1-0).
Roma pulled off a nice coup in the poster for the 25th day thanks to a light strike from defender Gianluca Mancini (53rd), who unlocked a match that had been closed until then. She takes fourth place by beating Milan (5th) on goal difference, beaten on Saturday by Fiorentina (2-1).
Juventus was initially too wait-and-see then unlucky, with three amounts found by Adrien Rabiot with a header (44th), Juan Cuadrado on a free kick (59th) then on a deflected corner (82nd)!
Stoppage for Juventus
This setback after four consecutive victories marks a setback for the Bianconeri, eighth at twelve points from 4th place because of his penalty of fifteen points for accounting fraud. Frustrated, they even finished at ten after the exclusion of Moise Kean for a gesture of annoyance (90th).
Roman coach José Mourinho succeeded in a meeting where he was able to sit on the bench in extremis, due to the freeze on Saturday of his two-match suspension after his exclusion at the start of the week against Cremonese.
He had reserved a surprise for Massimiliano Allegri by doing without Tammy Abraham, his usual No 9. Paulo Dybala was on paper the only striker of the Louve even if he often left this role to midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum to better retreat.
Late entry of Pogba and Abraham
Facing his ex-partners, whom he greeted before the match, the Argentinian wanted to shine but his first strike was blocked (15th) and the second well repelled by Wojciech Szczesny (27th).
In a lackluster game, only lit up before the break by Rabiot’s header deflected off the post by Rui Patricio, Mourinho was finally about to launch Abraham, ready on the edge of the sidelines, when Mancini scored.
Suddenly, “Mou” waited until the start of the last quarter of an hour to launch his center forward, a moment also chosen by Allegri to bring in Paul Pogba.
But Juve failed to find the fault despite their final push, falling to an impeccable Rui Patricio.
A jewel signed Mkhitaryan
At the start of the evening, Inter Milan took second place alone thanks to a jewel in the skylight from Henrikh Mkhitaryan (29th) and a recovery from Lautaro Martinez (53rd) – 14th goal from the Argentinian, second scorer in Serie A behind Victor Osimhen (19).
The Nerazzurri, however, remain far from Naples, still comfortably in the lead with a fifteen-point lead after their defeat on Friday against Lazio Rome (1-0).
“We never lowered the intensity, the team was on the ground until the end,” welcomed their coach Simone Inzaghi.
In the fight for maintenance, this 25th day will have been a blow for nothing in crucial matches between badly classified: Hellas Verona, first relegated (18th), had to be satisfied with a 0-0 frustrating on the ground of first not relegated, La Spezia (17th), just like Sampdoria (20th) on its ground against Salernitana (16th).
(AFP)